Welcome to Our Seminar!

• Please help yourself to some refreshments!

• Don’t be shy!• Take a moment to familiarize yourself

with the packet• Please Answer Questions 1 and 2 on the

half sheet in the left side of your packet

Fairness and Equality

Seminar Team: Jesse Allen, Sarah Anne Baxter, Nina Di Pietro, and

Teresa Funes

What are we aiming for in the differentiated classroom?

Equality

Fairness

Alexis de Tocqueville

– “an abstract word is like a box with a false bottom; you can put in it what ideas you please and take them out again unobserved”

– “This abundance of abstract terms in the language of democracy without reference to any particular facts, both widens the scope of thought and clouds it. They make expression quicker but conceptions less clear."

St. Thomas Aquinas

“Since man by nature is a social animal he needs assistance from other men in order to obtain his own end. Now this is most suitably done if men love one another mutually.”

American Declaration of Independence (1776)

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

John Locke in his Second Treatise (1689)

• “…there being nothing more evident, than that creatures of the same species and rank, promiscuously born to all the same advantages of nature, and the use of the same faculties, should also be equal one amongst another without subordination or subjection…”

Aristotle

“…if they are not equal, they will not have what is equal, but this is the origin of quarrels and complaints--when either equals have and are awarded unequal shares, or unequals equal shares.”

Modern Texts

Key Concepts from the Texts

• Teaching in a fair and developmentally appropriate manner

• Differentiated instruction does not mean we make learning easier for students but provides an appropriate challenge

• Requires us to do things differently for different students when the general classroom does not meet the student’s needs

Key Concepts from the Texts (Cont.)

• “Fair is not always equal, and our goal as teachers is to be fair and developmentally appropriate, not one-size fits-all equal”

Is there a common understanding of equality?

Modern Thought

• “One-size fits-all equality”

• The differentiated classroom

VS.

Ancient Thought• Aquinas, • John Locke• Thomas Jefferson• Aristotle

What is the relationship between fairness and equality?

Problems Teacher’s Face

• Wide range in level of achievement • Differences in learning abilities• Variation in preferred style of learning-

teachers often comment that students differ in the ways they prefer to learn

• Differences in motivation and goal orientation- many teachers seem to be aware of motivational issues

Education and Instruction in The Heterogeneous Class

• “One potential lesson that can be learned in school is that each person is a unique individual with merits and deficiencies who deserves to be treated in a respectful and equitable manner”

– Yisrael Rich

Zone of Proximal Development

• “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peer.” (Mind in Society, Vygotsky, 1978)

•Full development of the ZPD depends upon full social interaction•The basic idea: students learn best when they begin at their current point of understanding and are challenged, with support and guidance, just beyond what they are comfortable doing on their own

Differentiated instruction is not just: • When assignments are

the same for all learners • Varying the level of

difficulty of questions for certain students

• Grading some students harder than others

• Letting students who finish early play games for “enrichment”

• Dignify each learner with learning that is meaningful• Continuously assess student readiness and interest• Extend student exploration when indications are that a student or group of

students is ready to move ahead.

Differentiated instruction must:

Content/ Process/ Product

Content:

• Should address the same concepts with all students but be adjusted by degree of complexity for the diversity of learners in the classroom.

Process: • Based on the content, project, and on-going evaluations, grouping and regrouping

must be a dynamic process Product:

• Incorporating pre and on-going assessment informs teachers to better provide a menu of approaches, choices, and scaffolds for the varying needs, interests and abilities that exist in classrooms of diverse students.

Consider the following excerpt.

• “In education today there’s a widespread notion of “fairness” in some cosmic sense—not in the sense of treating everyone the same, but in the sense of trying to redress pre-existing inequalities.”

- Thomas Sowell

Scenarios

Underachiever

Do you allow him to remain at this level of performance or is there something you, as the instructor, can do?

How can you do this while keeping an atmosphere of equality amongst the other performing students?

 Under Achiever Movie Clip

OverAcheiver

What do you think would be the best way to discipline each of the students?

Should teachers have consistent methods of discipline?

Child with Learning Disablities Is it the teacher’s

responsibility to accommodate Keith’s learning disability?

Why or why not? How would you

accommodate a child with a learning disability without lowering the educational standards of the whole class?

Would you lower your expectations for that one child?

Average Student

Was the group participation part of the criteria for a grade?

Were students aware of this?

How often did the teacher observe and document?

Do you think this is the most effective way to get Nick to do more in class?

How to Nurture Success in All Children!

• Does differentiated instruction help to ensure fairness and equality in the classroom?

• How?